MD fire chief is still fire chief while serving a one year federal prison sentence
Billy Lednum is currently Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate No. 57529-037 in Fort Dix, New Jersey, serving a one year and one day sentence. Lednum is also currently the fire chief at Maryland’s Tilghman Island Volunteer Fire Company (Talbot County). Some may ask how that can be. It’s quite an interesting story.
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According to Catherine Rentz at The Baltimore Sun, Billy Lednum, like most people on Tilghman Island, makes his living on the Chesapeake Bay. He’s a waterman. Actually some have described him as a “waterman cowboy”. Lednum entered a guilty plea to federal charges stemming from rockfish (striped bass) poaching. It involved 10 tons of rockfish, the largest violation handled by the Maryland Natural Resources Police.
Despite the guilty plea, the prison sentence (the judge thought it important to make an example of Lednum) and a half million dollars in restitution, there’s a lot of support and sympathy for Lednum on Tilghman Island. It’s also probably safe to say that the fire chief on Tilghman Island is a lot better thought of than the marine police who patrol the waters nearby.
Catherine Rentz, The Baltimore Sun:
On insular Tilghman — a 2.7-square-mile island with fewer than 800 residents — many are outraged by Lednum’s fall. Not because of his crime: poaching rockfish in violation of state and federal law.
They are upset that this fourth-generation islander and chief of the volunteer fire department will be serving a year and a day behind bars for pursuing his livelihood. Neighboring families can’t recall anybody ever going to prison “just for catching a fish.” Curiously, not even watermen who had their 2011 quotas slashed as a result of the poaching said they were upset with him — or the three others convicted last year in the poaching scheme.
The Tilghman Island Volunteer Fire Company recently decided that Lednum should continue as chief while he’s in prison. Two marinas have offered to dock the Kristin Marie for free. A waterman friend will be mowing his lawn while he’s gone.
